"All right."
"Go now, and be here again in the shortest possible time. Bill and I will arrange matters for future operations while you are gone."
Dick hastened away to do the bidding of his master, and Duffel communicated to Bill the following piece of intelligence:
"I was very much in hopes the whole of our plan for to-night would succeed, though I heard that in the evening which caused me to have misgivings on the subject. I learned that Hadley received intelligence that his mother and uncle were both sick and not expected to recover.—They live in Philadelphia: the uncle, his mother's brother, a bachelor, by the way, with whom she is living, is reputed wealthy, and, it is said, has willed his property to young Hadley. The news of these events was brought to him yesterday, and he made immediate preparations to go east, but did not expect to get off until this morning. I presume, however, he must have started yesterday in the after part of the day; but be this as it may, I wish you and Dick to follow after him, and don't fail to finish him somehow and somewhere. If you could only manage to get ahead of him and waylay him at some point in the mountains, it would be the best place for you to do the deed and conceal the commission of the act."
"Yes, if he should be alone."
"Which will most likely be the case, at least a portion of the time. But should no such opportunity occur, or should you fail to get beyond him on the way, you must watch for him in the city; follow him as closely as his shadow, and in some dark alley, or at some unseasonable hour, put him out of the way."
"Exactly."
"You understand that this must be done, do you?"
"If Lieutenant Duffel says so."
"Well, I do say so, most emphatically. I am more anxious than ever to have him settled, since this new phase of affairs has come up."